Tucker Carlson recently did a piece on Paul Singer, a wealthy hedge fund manager who appears to be destroying jobs in order to make millions. He highlighted what Singer did to Cabelas, which left almost 2,000 without jobs after it was sold to Bass Pro Shops. I believe the term Carlson used was ‘vulture capitalism’.
You can read the full piece on Singer here, but there’s something that Carlson neglected, or forgot to mention in the interest of full disclosure when he ran his piece:
DAILY BEAST – In mid-2011, Tucker Carlson’s digital media outlet The Daily Caller was looking for money, and it turned to one of the biggest conservative donors in the country. The conservative news site hit up aides to New York hedge-fund manager Paul Singer with a pitch for its new nonprofit arm, The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Singer’s team rebuffed the request. But emails obtained by The Daily Beast show that Daily Caller staff, including its co-founder and publisher Neil Patel, circled back with Singer’s family office on numerous other occasions over the subsequent four years asking for meetings and courting Singer’s financial support.
The Daily Caller’s appeals began in June 2011, when Patel reached out to Singer’s office to arrange a meeting with Carlson. “We think what we are doing is having a big impact, especially on a per dollar basis,” he wrote. “We are also building out a real business with a direct ad sales team. Therefore, unlike most political dealings, an investment with us offers some hope of a return and maybe a very good one. We would love to discuss this at your convenience. Tucker comes up about once a week to host Hannity and I end up there regularly too so let us know if you are up for it.”
Later that year, internal Singer office emails indicate that a different Daily Caller fundraiser reached out to request a meeting between Singer and Carlson. “I called the woman back and she is kind of pushy,” a Singer aide wrote. “I asked her to send me a one pager on the project and she told me that it is so sensitive that they do not want to put anything into writing to send around (it’s something to do with going after Obama and the left)… I don’t think my ‘no’ was forceful enough.”
The pitches continued throughout late 2011 and early 2012. After a lull, they picked up again in late 2014 and early 2015. In one email, a Daily Caller representative assured Singer’s office that “funding is 100% deductible and there are no disclosure requirements.”
A Singer adviser is suggesting Carlson may have done this for revenge over not getting the fundraising he wanted:
Asked for a comment on the emails, a Singer adviser essentially accused Carlson of coming after the billionaire hedge-funder in retaliation for declining the fundraising appeals.
“There was no principle at stake here,” the adviser said. “This is how a protection racket operates—you pay Tucker or you become a target. And he now has a much bigger platform to pursue his vendettas.”
But Carlson say she doesn’t even remember pursuing Singer for funds:
Carlson says he doesn’t even recall his company asking Singer for money. “I don’t remember having anything to do with that. I don’t think that I did,” he said. “But it wouldn’t matter anyway because, as I’ve said many times, my views about pretty much everything have changed dramatically in the past 10 years, based on the evidence. America’s changed and so have my views.”
I get that he may have forgotten about this. It’s understandable, as I’m sure he was hitting up every billionaire joe in Washington for cash to get and keep the Daily Caller going before he left in 2016.
But in retrospect it would have been nice to know about this in the interest of full disclosure, because now some, especially his critics, can accuse him of going after Singer for revenge and omitting the part where he also wanted the billionaire’s money.